The only thing what you quoted should serve as a lesson to players on is that in this market you should never be honest with the media because there are dopes in this fan base who, when looking for scapegoats will make mountains out of whatever molehills they can.
I don't think honesty has much to do with it. "Dopes" and non-"dopes" don't complain about him being too honest. What they're complaining about in this case, is what he said about his fitness.
Did he say this statement?:
"“Honestly, I skated maybe—I don’t want to tell you this—but I skated 10 times maybe all summer,”"
He most certainly did.
Does it represent his fitness level? Nope, not on it's own.
Is it a sound byte the media would run with? You betchca and with his checkered fitness history, they did.
And even if you include all of his comments, as many media outlets did, he's poorly communicating what he does for fitness over the summer.
This is the big leagues. He's speaking to the fans. That used to be a big deal to his predecessor, Sundin. Like Sundin did, he needs to improve the simplicity and clarity his communications. He volunteered this stuff - nobody twisted his arm. All he had to do was properly and clearly explain himself when he answered the question.
"I don’t want to tell you this" ... oh, yes he did or he wouldn't have. He knew he was about to say something that would get the media doing. He brought it on himself.
The real dope here is the guy doing such a poor job speaking with the media that it comes back on him. Self inflicting media wounds isn't smart. I don't think Phil's the sharpest knife in the drawer but I'm sure he can do better.
Why do you care about Phil interacts with the media?
Because it affects Kessel and the team and
If you read the thread, it started with trying to provide some perspective on this:
From the Game Day thread:
Good to see that the top line rediscovered their moral character.
Kessel got unfat.
And are we are still doing that strange Kessel loves cheeseburgers thing (I still don't understand why this started other than Kessel having a wide face). If so, I don't think it's a coincidence that Kessel puts up 3 points on the day that Hammond doesn't play.
There can be only one!
It responds to 'I don't understand ... the wide face ... hamburger ' stuff to some extent - because Kessel and the media had a hand in it
It also provides some input on the conditioning issue.
All Kessel's said is that he takes a month off and doesn't do that much skating. 10 times is still almost once a week. He doesn't come into training camp as one of the top three most fit guys (according to Cox) by drinking beer and fishing.
You know that. I know that. He can't be in terrible shape.
The problem in that particular "skated 10 times this summer" example I showed is that stupid little monologue doesn't say that very well or clearly. It leaves a lot of room for negative interpretations and sets off a media firestorm questioning his fitness - because he didn't do a very good job presenting it in the first place. Some of the problem he's having with Leafs Nation, that he had with Bruins fans, is self inflicted in how he handles himself with the media.
I realize he's not comfortable - a bit of a social introvert - his social/people skills leave something to be desired. Whether he likes it or not, he's a face of the franchise getting paid $10 million and when he says stuff like he did about something where his track record is checkered, there can be self inflicted media consequences - like hamburger jokes.
